Katie Beckett, 34, whose battle with a childhood disease and federal bureaucracy made her a national symbol in the 1980s, died today.
Beckett’s death was confirmed by Teahen Funeral Home of Cedar Rapids. Her parents Julie Beckett and Mark Beckett declined comment today.
Beckett contracted viral encephalitis five months after her March 9, 1978 birth in Cedar Rapids. She recovered after three years in pediatric intensive care, but the resulting respiratory condition required continued therapy and use of a respirator 12 hours a day.
“I was forced to live in a hospital for the first three and a half years of my life because insurance companies would not pay for services to let me live at home,” Beckett wrote the Gazette in 2007.